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Playable Characters
The game has four, main playable characters. There are extras for multiplayer, but they won't be covered here. How they should be used for Any %/Segmented runs and ILs will be described here along with general information. This page assumes you have read both Controls and Game Systems and Timing Overview. Mission specific things will be covered on either the Any % or Individual Levels pages. Sonic The Knight of the Wind is the only character available to you in the game's first half. Let's talk about what he can do that other characters can't first. * Sonic's Homing Slash is much faster than Shadow's and should happen instantly if you swing while flying towards the enemy. Sometimes that swing simply won't register due to the game's controls sucking, but you can still swing once Sonic bounces off of the target to start the Homing Slash. * Sonic is the only character that can use B in the air. His aerial variant is faster and uses less Soul Gauge to do, but he obviously has to land before he can do anything else so it isn't always faster to use it in the air. * Sonic is the only character that can cancel B with A. This works only on the ground, not in the air. While you always want to cancel and run past whatever you don't want to target, this is useful depending on the mission. * Sonic is the the only character where Homing Slash to Aerial Attack combos into itself indefinitely. For Shadow, Aerial Attack will combo into Homing Slash, but not the other way around. * Sonic can spin up walls by jump dashing into them and will attack enemies on the way if leveled up enough, but he will stop if he heads straight into one. You want to approach them from the side. You won't be doing this in Any % or Segmented runs, but I think it's important to mention. * Sonic is the only character that can swing while running. His attacks are supposed to auto cancel if they connect while running. Most of the time they won't. His special attack done with B does not have a name. Crests Next are the crests you unlock as you gain followers that only apply to Sonic. Note that you have the style the crest is attached to maxed out to use the crest. Crest of Wind This crest is attached to the Cavalier style. It functions like it does in Secret Rings. It provides a large boost to his top speed and requires a ring per every second while in use. It also boosts the top speed of the Speedbreak. Unlike the Secret Rings equivalent, the Crest of Wind will still function even if you run out of rings so don't worry about that. The Crest of Wind's activation is denoted by a ring being lost and/or a small tornado swirling around Sonic. You won't see either if you have no rings or an ability that requires a wind effect has been performed prior to when the wind effect would be called. Normally, a few steps have to be taken for it to activate, but it will be instantly activated if certain conditions are met. * Landing after a Jump Dash, Homing Slash, or Short Hop without stomping. * Passing through blue fairies or a booster. * Landing on a downwards slope with some forward momentum. * Coming out of a Speedbreak. Sonic's hitbox is smaller while using the Crest of Wind which allows him to bypass certain things that other characters cannot like some of the giants for example. From a Crest of Wind propelled Speedbreak, Sonic will take a few steps in the air after running off of a cliff. You can skip some of the gaps in Dragon's Lair with this if you turn left or right while passing over them. Crest of Kings A useless crest that is attached to the Knight Style. All it does is let you trade with the townspeople by touching them. Your standing needs to be positive or it will be disabled. The emblems on the followers screen after completing a mission will denote this. Black or Red emblems are bad. White or Gold ones are good. Detriments to that rating include destroying pots and pans, failing trades with townspeople, or hurting them. Basically, anything that hurts a towns person will hurt your standing with them. Crest of Fire The Crest of Fire is attached to the Paladin style and it only serves one purpose. It gives you a special attack while running. Running forward while swinging the Wii Remote with good timing gives you an auto-running fire attack that will mow down enemies in a line no matter if they have a shield. It's useful depending on the mission. Any % Here are some Any % tips as Sonic. He's all you can use in the game's first half and you will use him most of the time in the second half. * Sonic is very slow at the start of the game just like in Secret Rings, but he's so slow in this game that short hopping is faster than running in certain situations. On a slope, it's faster to let him run. Once Sonic is already at top speed from a slope or landing from the air or from blue fairies, it's faster to let him run. If you are on flat terrain and Sonic isn't already running beforehand, it's faster to short hop. If short hop is used to pass an enemy, it's faster to keep doing it. Hold forward while doing so and try to short hop again right before hitting the ground. * Homing Slash is your quickest means of fighting enemies that are in a line. You have no control over its path, but the timing of the attack combined with the timing of the enemy spawn can manipulate this a little. For example, enemies with shields won't use them until a little bit after they spawn. If you can homing slash right before then, you should make it through them without being stopped by their shields. Also, Sonic is more likely to continue the homing slash if you get to enemies while they are in the middle of spawning instead of after. There are mission specific things for him that will be covered on the Any % page. Individual Levels For times you obviously want a maxed out Cavalier style. For Ring Chain missions or if you're score attacking (I have no idea how the point system works in this game) you obviously want Knight style. For bosses or missions with many enemies like the Dragon's Lair and Faraway Avalon rampage stuff, you obviously want Paladin. Keep in mind that you want the Soul Gauge to be max at the start. You need all followers for that. Cavalier Style Positives and Negatives Positives * Highest Soul Gauge efficiency. * Obviously the fastest style. * Crest of Wind lets you run past most enemies in the game without having to short hop. * Splash Jump (yes it's so good in this game that it deserves its own bullet point) Negatives * Very weak when it comes to combat. * Crest of Wind drains rings while in use. * Sonic moves too damn fast for you to react. You have to memorize the stages and your timing has to be on point. He also becomes harder to steer. Knight Style Positives and Negatives Positives * Huge Ring Reward. Great for points and Ring Chains. * Has most of the combat buffs from Paladin. * Has most of the movement buffs from Cavalier. * That golden sword looks boss. Negatives * None really. Use it for scores and ring chains of course. Paladin Style Positives and Negatives Positives * Huge attack buffs. Extends the range of the sword almost two sword lengths. * Ring Reward is almost as good as it is for Knight style. * Targeting distance is increased, especially for B. Very useful. * Crest of Fire is ridiculous. Great for the linear missions that go in a circle. Negatives * Lowest Soul Gauge efficiency. * Very slow. Almost no movement upgrades at all. * Only useful for a handful of missions. Hopefully this list gives you idea of what style to use for what mission. When choosing between Cavalier and Paladin for rampage missions (the results screen show your highest enemy chain), keep the soul gauge efficiency rating and enemy positions (yes, you have to learn these for the rampage missions) in mind. Cavalier might be better depending on the mission because of the soul gauge efficiency allowing you to use B more. Paladin might be better depending on enemy position. If they are more spread out, the increased targeting distance while using B will be necessary (example being Crystal Cave Rampage to link 57 to 58). Knight style is only useful for scores and rings. The remaining characters are tied to a specific style so none of the above crap matters to them. :P Shadow (Lancelot/Knight Style) Shadow is your only other consideration for Any % because he gains Soul Gauge by running. Sonic can also do it, but the proficiency level of Knight style has to be raised and you won't be getting it high enough in Any % for him to use it when it matters. I'm getting ahead of myself. That's for another page. * His Speedbreak has him flying across the ground like superman. This is a bad thing because it extends his hitbox and has the highest amount of startup time. * Chaos Punishment is the name of his special attack and as you can guess it is very slow due to the teleporting. During a time attack, you never want to do it unless you have to. You have to cancel with B before you target something. With his last sword it becomes Chaos Blast. * Shadow has a homing slash like Sonic but he spins horizontally instead of vertically which increase the start up. Swinging while moving forward from a homing attack might result in the homing slash not happening unless the timing is perfect, same for after the bounce off an enemy. The most reliable way of doing Shadow's homing slash is to do an aerial attack first, although sometimes you'll have to get it right without using an aerial attack to lead into it. * His attacks on ground are how you do Chaos Spear when you have the last sword. Shadow is pretty much a slower version of Sonic, but with his last sword becomes the best character in the game for combat by far. This game doesn't have much combat going on in it to matter, but still... Blaze (Percival/Cavalier Style) As you can guess, she's a very fast character. Her running speed is much faster than Sonic's by the time you unlock her in Any % but she's terrible at combat and is not worth using in that category. * Her Speedbreak is a dash similar to Sonic's. * Her hitbox while running is similar to Sonic's with the Crest of Wind. She can perform most of Sonic's enemy skips. * She has a Jump Dash and a Homing Attack and her own special Homing Slash, but she has a double jump for some reason. It hurts way more than it helps. * I'm not sure what's special about her last sword except for her lunge attack getting upgraded. * I still have no idea what the name of her special is, but it does many hits all of which are Perfect Hits. It's very difficult to control. The last sword for her doesn't change anything about it. For Any % she useless. For ILs, she's a pain to use. Knuckles (Gawain/Paladin Style) He's the slowest character in the game. Yes, he can glide. Even though he is a Paladin Style, he sucks at combat. Only Blaze is keeping him from the worst spot, and that's just barely. * His speedbreak is a dash similar to Sonic's. * He has the largest hitbox. * He has a rapid slash in his attack string. It's useless in case you thought it wasn't. * He can glide by pressing A again while in the air. Swinging while gliding results in a dive attack. As you can infer from this information, his dive attack is his homing slash. It does target the nearest enemy, but you'll have to keep shaking to bounce from one enemy to the next. Also, his glide is how you destroy the robots in Legacy missions. I always found that to be funny. * His last sword is stupid, and I mean that in a bad way. It increase the range of B to target any enemy within the game's draw distance. This sounds like it would be great, but it's not. It ends up letting you target enemies that are under, above, even behind you. Yeah, that's right, behind you. This really annoying for obvious reasons. Nothing to say here until the ILs section is ready. Knuckles and Blaze suck. Moving on.. Weight Yes, each of the four playable characters have their own weight. I'm very serious. The following list is in order from heaviest to lightest. # Knuckles # Shadow # Sonic # Blaze What does this mean? The higher the weight, the faster the character falls. The higher the weight, the faster the character picks up speed while running down a slope. That second statement is most important here. Knuckles while going down a steep enough slope moves faster than a Crest of Wind Speedbreak. No joke. For Shadow and Knuckles, it's actually faster to let them run/slide down a slope or a hill instead of letting them Speedbreak down it. Same for Sonic if you don't have the Crest of Wind.